Jonathan Vaudreuil

“When we talk about settling the world’s problems, we’re barking up the wrong tree. The world is perfect. It’s a mess. It has always been a mess. We are not going to change it. Our job is to straighten out our own lives.” – Joseph Campbell

“Let’s not try to figure out everything at once.” – The National, from “Fake Empire”

The most important thing I do at work every day is lead with my personal beliefs.

I cannot end world hunger, break down racial barriers, make hate disappear, or eliminate any of the world’s biggest problems. I’m one out of seven billion people.Read more

This is part of my weekly series on how philosophy (personal beliefs) affect people’s perspective, and how you can this knowledge in life.

After the first round of the baseball playoffs this year, it became clear to me which team I was going to root for: whoever was playing the Yankees.

Bear with me. I’ve been a diehard Red Sox fan since I first began to understand baseball.

Loyalty is an interesting topic. We all have loyalties to certain people and companies for our own reasons. If you’re loyal to someone you’ll go out of your way to help, offer support, and spend time with them. Same with loyalty to a company, as you’ll go out of your way to support them and get others to check them out.Read more

How likely are you to refer me to a friend?

According to the Harvard Business Review, that’s the only question you can ask which will determine how easily you can grow your business. The people who tell others about you are far more valuable than anyone in your sales organization because they will grow your company for you. Yes, this is true even if you’re flying solo.

Think about it for a moment. Which is more powerful, the company telling you how great they are or a friend of yours telling you how great they are? So people who are going to tell people about you – not just likely, those who will or already have – are the most credible in spreading the word. They’re the people you want to shower with love.

One of our customers is testing this question out in a customer survey. I'm looking forward to checking out the feedback.Read more

I want you to know that most people’s initial mistake in making a pitch and a first connection has an easy fix.

The mistake? It’s best if I give an example. Let’s say you approach or call someone who would be a top-notch prospect for what you’re trying to do. You tell them who you are, what you do, and why it’s such a great thing. They shrug at you, or ignore you, or tell you “not interested.”

They turned you down. It makes no sense at first, because if you were like them, trying to get your magic waffles in front of people who worship filling each square full of syrup, you’d jump at this opportunity. Where did things go wrong?

You needed to start a conversation.Read more

This is the first post in a weekly series on how philosophy (personal beliefs) affect people’s perspective, and how you can this knowledge in life.

What would you rather do, work or play a game?

Some call problems “opportunities dressed up as work.” Who the heck wants to show up to WORK? You know what I mean; that kind of work you dread, the kind where you need a pot of coffee in your system just to move papers to a new area, after you already spent the first thirty-five minutes of the day bantering with your coworkers around the water cooler. That kind of work.

The game wins for me, always.

Games fit life well. Remember, there are different kinds of games. Not all have losers, though someone comes out ahead. The losers don’t have to be people (though sometimes they are). Take the concept of the game and expand it beyond pickup basketball, monopoly and poker. It’s all three of those and so much more.Read more

For at least the third time in two years, one of my colleagues has proposed to change how we manage a calling list.

We print out a physical paper contact sheet for every prospect or customer. Each time someone has proposed this change it has been from the perspective of a sales team member who makes phone calls. The change? Allow the team direct access to the database to eliminate the paper clutter and speed up data entry.

The problem? No one on the operations side is looking to change things, because their job is to manage the information gathered by the sales team. The sales team is best at getting the information; the operations team is best at creating reports and managing the database using this information.

Not once has a member of the sales team approached the operations team first to ask questions and understand why we print out paper contact sheets.

If you understand the other side first:
- You can see whether or not you can help the other person
- They are more receptive to you because you can show them how you understand them and where you fit inRead more

I started reading Kurt Vonnegut’s Slaughterhouse-Five over the weekend, and the cover baffles me.

To be specific, it’s the tagline across the top. It reads, “Best selling author of Timequake” in white capital letters. I’m no Vonnegut buff, so I had to look up Timequake to see it was his last novel. At this point I flip open the cover of Slaughterhouse to see the list of other Vonnegut novels and realize there’s no Timequake. What? I then look at the title atop the page, which states it’s a list of Vonnegut books published by Dell. Timequake was not published by Dell.Read more

Think about the last time you splurged a little on something you had no intention of buying. Especially if you looked back afterwards and wished you hadn't done that, even if it was the teeniest tiniest doubt.

What made you do it?

Let me rephrase that: what were you feeling when you made that purchase?

We have a wide range of emotions, and they're far more powerful than our logical minds. Think about your logical decisions for a moment. How many of them were to fill an emotional need?

Trust me, the answer is more than "a few." The answer is "all of them."

Take buying clothing, for example. We need clothing, yet there are so many choices. Why buy a certain pair of jeans? People don't buy jeans because they fit well, it's because of how someone feels wearing a pair of jeans that fit well. Heck, buying jeans in itself is an emotional decision. Maybe you don't want to feel bad after destroying nicer pants so you buy jeans; maybe you like the comfortable feeling which washes over you wearing jeans.Read more

Tell me what you think when I post this name:

Rush Limbaugh

Talk about a controversial figure. Forget that he has rabid fans and harsh opponents, because Rush is far more than that. He has people who cannot stand him yet agree with his views, and people who love his personality yet disagree with him on so many levels.

His willingness to stand for what he believes in is what has brought him his success. He is has the most-listened to radio show in the USA. He released a pair of #1 best-selling books in the 90's. It's the kind of success so many dream about.

It also stands in his way of some things in life.

Rush was dropped from a group of investors looking to buy the St. Louis Rams NFL franchise. On the surface it makes little sense. Limbaugh was a minority investor, not the leader of the group, and would not have much power over the Rams.Read more

Have you ever thought about your personal brand?

This has been the first 8 months of my blog's purpose. To figure out who my writing self is and what he likes to discuss. I've bounced enough ideas around to get a feel for what I can bring to the table and what I should keep tucked away. In the end, the writing I set out to do is not the writing I am going to continue to do.

Because I need to write about what I do and think about, not what I envision myself as.

That's what branding strikes me as. It's a reflection, it's a photograph. Don't worry, you can still clean up nice and tell the photographer to get your good side. Give yourself credit where credit is due. Embellishments are bad and noticeable, like a bad photoshopped picture. Remember these rules, because you're not marketing to customers, you're marketing to people, and some of them are brighter than you think.

So many people focus on the branding side of things, as if drawing people in is the most important thing in the world. In the end, what you offer is what keeps someone around. Branding is just projecting the best you have to offer. The key here: you need to offer something worth branding!Read more